Wrath of the Lich King: Warlock roundup

by Zach Yonzon Nov 12th 2008 at 9:00PM

Having fun yet? I know I am, and I'm not even playing Wrath yet, even though it's already out. The changes to the game have brought the Warlock to a different level of playability -- not quite as overwhelmingly powerful as before, but a whole lot of fun nonetheless. That's the point of this game, isn't it? To have fun? Well, congratulations for playing a Warlock, because from here to Level 80, I think you'll have a lot of fun. Let's see what we've got...

STATE OF THE CLASS

If you're only checking in now, you might be a bit surprised to see how much of the game has changed from The Burning Crusade. Our coverage of Patch 3.0.3 and the associated Warlock changes should get you up to speed.
You can learn the Dreadsteed spell without doing the quest now. Cheater.
Did you know that DoTs can now crit?
You might need to set your demon to Passive, by the way. The new Defensive for pets works somewhat differently now... kind of a passive-aggressive that gets us into trouble.
Speaking of pets, did you hear about that time when a big blueberry actually tanked Illidan? True story. Too bad the threat component has been nerfed somewhat.

TALENT TREES

Blizzard definitely shook things up when they unleashed Patch 3.0.2 upon Azeroth and I really took a liking to Affliction (I lie, I've always liked Affliction) and didn't quite get the hang of Demonology. My thoughts on the two trees can be found in an old Blood Pact.
I surprised myself by actually enjoying Destruction. Give it a shot. You might surprise yourself, too.
We ran through some talent choices for Affliction when 3.0.2 came out.
We also took a look at, ugh, Demonology.
And then there's Destruction.

GENERAL TIPS

Have a look at our Demonology 101 series, which gives an overview of the different Warlock pets such as the popular Voidwalker, the sexy Succubus, and even the conditional-but-now-usable-indoors Infernal.
Learn how to unleash the full potential of a skill with our Skill Mastery. We took a look at Haunt, one of Affliction's staple spells.

We have a plethora of stuff on Warlocks, but you'll probably have to wade through all the other posts just to get to them. That's not so bad, actually... so get reading!

Tags: Affliction, Class-Roundup, Demonology, Destruction, Round-up, Roundup, Warlock

Filed under: Warlock, Wrath of the Lich King

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dustin Nov 12th 2008 9:16PM

I'm a warlock and I really enjoy playing as one. I must say the affliction update for Warlock post 3.03, is awesome!. Haunt and UA with other dots as well really helps bring down those hard bosses. I love it when I have OMEN up and my dps is drastically ahead of everyone else!

Badge Nov 13th 2008 5:55AM

Yeah, my raid leader always likes when i win on Omen.

Dever Nov 12th 2008 9:17PM

Being a warlock makes me sad =/ Im hopinh Demonic Circle will change that.

it-hobbit Nov 12th 2008 9:21PM

I found the changes Welcome, I have 2 locks, none 70 lvl yet, and Affliction is by far the most comfortable tree (for me) at the moment. It feels like it flows, and it makes playing that much more fun for me, a bit more streamlined you could say!

bastiest Nov 12th 2008 9:47PM

Look out the race to 80 is on. Woohoo

sosei Nov 12th 2008 11:36PM

I've fallen back in love with Affliction after a pre-3.0.2 affair with Destruction. :D

Chinmay Nov 13th 2008 12:18AM

I am quite new to WOW and just managed to bring my Lock to lvl 67.

I am doing some PVP runs these days and quite expectedly getting bitten up by Rogues and Paladins of same level...

I am looking to do some hardcore PVPing to get nice PVP gear. Can anyone suggest which talent tree I should spec into?

I have read the 3.0.2 Warlock specific posts but they talk mainly about PVE not PVP.(I might have missed some post though).

In anycase, I would love to see specs of good Warlock PVPer. Can anyone point me to any such player on wowarmoury?

Soulbento Nov 13th 2008 2:21AM

The only advice I can give you is to buy Wrath, ding 68 and go to Northrend. Gear-wise this is the best thing you can do. You cant even fly in Northrend till 77, so you'll be like most other people running around(but your Riding Crop will work till you ding 70)...just two levels lower. And the quest rewards will be better than many epics that would have taken months of raiding/farming to have acquired.

Sorry but

wude Nov 13th 2008 8:06AM

Some of our hard earned epics will make it to 80.... well depending on how far you made it into raiding, but I'd imagine some of the T5+ stuff will make it into Naxx at least.

On another note, Demo has been pretty fun to raid with since the affliction changes made it almost impossible to keep up in DPS with all the burst classes. The pre-Wrath patch buffs to other classes made it difficult to be a raiding 'lock of any spec. Here's to hoping Wrath-raiding goes back to being as much fun as it was prior to the Echos of DooooooooooooooooooM!

Lemons Nov 13th 2008 2:37PM

"We also took a look at, ugh, Demonology."

Haha, I wouldn't knock Demonology, metamorphosis is the only way a warlock survives me (a rogue) in pvp. If you're a decent warlock the armor it gives you is just retarded, but without it I would cut you down in about 3 hits. As far as its pve potential, well, as far as I know it never had any anyways so don't complain about that.